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Conjuring Universe Passes $1 Billion At Worldwide Box Office

Thanks to big ticket sales for Annabelle: Creation, the films in The Conjuring Universe have crossed $1 billion at the worldwide box office. Released in 2013, The Conjuring kicked off director James Wan's movie series, as it told the true-life tale of demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga), who for the bulk of the film concentrated on the mystery behind the supernatural hauntings at a Rhode Island farmhouse.

But in the film's opening scenes the Warrens encountered a demonic-possessed vintage doll named Annabelle, whose creepy presence led Wan and Warner Bros. to create a solo movie for the twisted plaything, thus kicking off an accidental universe of Conjuring-related movies. Earning a successful box office take on a relatively small budget in comparison to most Hollywood standards, Warner Bros. proceeded with confidence to not only produce the highly successful The Conjuring 2 , but churn out the Annabelle prequel Annabelle: Creation, which by all indications is going to be as big a smash as its predecessors inspired by the Warren's case files.

According to The Wrap, Annabelle: Creation has earned more than $110 million worldwide since its August 11 release in theaters. Together with the global tallies of The Conjuring ($318 million), The Conjuring 2 ($320.2 million) and Annabelle ($256.8 million), the film universe has grossed $1.005 billion to date, and will surely add millions more in Annabelle: Creation's second weekend at the box office. Warner Bros. President of Worldwide Marketing and Distribution Sue Kroll celebrated the milestone, saying in a statement:

“We are thrilled with the success of Annabelle: Creation and enormously proud to continue bringing this hugely popular Conjuring franchise to theaters everywhere. We congratulate our colleagues at New Line Cinema, our astute marketing and distribution teams, and everyone who put their collective creative energies together to tell such wonderfully frightening stories for movie audiences around the world to enjoy.”

What makes the success of The Conjuring universe so remarkable is that while the films have all earned blockbuster numbers, they've done so with budgets from miniscule to low/mid-range at best. Annabelle was produced for a mere $6.5 million and Annabelle: Creation was made for $15 million, while the first Conjuring's production cost $20 million, and The Conjuring 2 was produced for $40 million. And while those numbers don't account for any costs spent on marketing and distributing the films, they are sure to have a much bigger profit margin than most of their competitors in the marketplace today.

Lucky for Warner Bros., The Conjuring universe is really only getting started since two spinoff films from characters introduced in The Conjuring 2–The Nun and The Crooked Man– are in the works,and The Conjuring 3 is in the franchise's future as well. The beauty for the studio is, there are bound to be characters introduced in those films that will be scary enough to merit their own spinoffs, effectively making the boundaries for The Conjuring universe limitless.